NEWS

Here we have the so-called leader of the free world reading his greetings to the Pope. Bush must be saying something like this: Hell-o Pope John Paul, I am very happy to visit with you on this beautiful day of the Vatican. I know we will have a deep but friendly talk about life and sex, I mean stem cell research.

The Pope, of course, does not like stem research because every embryo is a potential person. This Pope is expected to have this response and can dictate the policy for Catholics, but he cannot make policy for the rest of the world.

Bush figured that he was going to try to sit in the middle with his decision, since there were too many rich Republican friends that wanted to promote stem research. Parkinson's, and spinal cord injury among many other conditions that may respond to use of stem cells are no respecter of persons. You can be rich as Rupert Murdoch and still get Parkinsons.

On the other hand, Bush didn't want to completely infuriate his religious right wing supporters, who believe the soul is in every embryo that gets discarded. He did make them mad, however, with his middle of the road position. Sooner or later he is going to make the wrong religious right wing kook mad. Many of them believe that the shrub was the answer to their prayers, and will not react well to any suggestion that he is reneging on the promises to them that they think he made. Bush may have signed his death warrent with this decision.

After six months of hellish right wing policy making, Bush is now trying to get the moderates and independents back into his camp. He is trotting out the compassionate conservative label again in hopes that enough voters believe his con and will vote for him in the next presidential election. Despite the bad economy, the attempted assault on the environment, and the budget busting tax cut, as well as his stupid foreign policy decisions, some idiots in the middle class still think Bush cares about them.

The Bush Dyslexicon

Mark Crispin Miller has written an excellent book that not only covers some of Bush's most idiotic quotes, but discusses the ramifications of his presidential style. Of course, the frightening thing about Bush being president doesn't concern his stupid little sayings, but what they tell us about the lay of his mind and the depth of his soul. For example, Miller seems to believe that Bush speaks with the most clarity when he is mean but truthful, and speaks in his typical jumbled manner when he either doesn't know what to say or when he lying.

Miller talks about Bush's body language and how it indicates his disinterest. Recently I saw a slumping Bush in a golf cart and wondered if we got this noodle head in the White House because God is punishing us for our irresponsible and selfish stewardship of this planet. Why would anyone want to vote for a slumping noodle head? I guess almost half of the population must identity with this nasty clone of Forest Gump.

Another problem with having a mean, slumping noodle head in office, according to Crispin, are the ruthless politicos that are needed to prop him up. Besides the sociopathic Republicans in Congress, now we have to watch equally Machiavellian advisors in the White House, like Karl Rove, the Capricorn control freak that has never seen a policy, a person, or a situation that he didn't want to manipulate. He makes Gray Davis(also a Capricorn) seem like a loosey goosey.

Miller mentions that according to Dick Hermann, Bush's former classmate at Yale, "he was intellectually lazy, not particularly interested in anything serious, rather arrogant, contemptuous of studying and purposeless." Isn't it nice to know that over the years Bushie hasn't changed a bit? He gave up drinking, maybe, (although a friend of mine says he's sure that the way Bush appeared on television right around the time he was inaugurated gave him the strong impression that he was recovering from a hangover), but how else is he different from the callous youth at Yale?

He goes off to slumberland all the time with his pillow named Pillie, works out when he isn't sleeping or playing video golf. He slumps, he smirks, and he is an intellectual cipher. He's arrogant because he thinks he's better than everyone else and he's never had his comeuppance for any infraction, major or minor. His parents bailed him out of everything over his life time. He has never had a life like the rest of us have had, and he has little or no understanding of how we live.

I once knew a woman who was renting a shabby dwelling from a local slum lord. During the winter floods, her apartment didn't get flooded, but it was filled with mold and the carpet rotted. She brought the landlord's wife into the apartment to see show her how she and her children lived, in hopes the couple would do something about the condition of their apartment. However, this slumlord and his wife were Republicans like Bush who had no interest in helping out anyone unless there was some material gain for them. It would cost them money to make the apartment healthy and livable. Claiming that they were broke and didn't have the money to renovate the apartment, the landlord and his family soon flew off to Ireland for a vacation. To hell with the rest of the world and their responsibilities, they've got theirs.